I just watched this episode of a TV show about catching big fish.

It was deep in the Congo, and the chief of the local tribe was helping the guy narrating the program look for big fish....but part of the story was that while they were there, the chief's brother was a day overdue coming back from fishing. In that area, NOTHING happens 'by accident', and some of the locals were beginning to believe that the narrator's arrival was 'bad luck'/'curse', and the sentiment was that if the man wasn't found, they should stone the 'intruder' to death. Luckily, they found him the next morning.

Now THAT is obviously superstition...you know- primitive tribes, fear of what they don't understand....all that.

It kinda interests me to muse about what the difference is when members of an advanced society like most of 'us' have beliefs we weave into our attempts to cope with stuff we can't explain. Is it really so different from witch-burning or rabbit's foot charms?

I understand the impulse to attribute strange happenings to mysterious causes, I just don't understand giving in and taking it seriously.

YMMV